2018 Campeonato Espana Universitario

The Catholic University of Murcia, or UCAM, put up a historically-dominant performance at the 2018 Spanish university championships, winning a record 54 medals (35 golds, 13 silvers, and 6 bronzes) en route to a trio of titles (men’s, women’s, and overall).

Among the star performers of the team was Olympic gold medalist Mireia Belmonte, who won 8 gold medals in the meet. In the process, Belmonte broke 6 Championship Records, including taking 3 seconds from the 400 free record, 11 seconds from the 800 free record, and 7 seconfs from the 200 IM record.

Belmonte was one of a handful of international-level swimmers competing at the meet, mostly training at UCAM with Belmonte. Her teammate, 29-year old Jessica Vall, won the 100 IM, (1:02.88), 50 breaststroke (31.82), 100 breaststroke (1:08.18), and 200 breaststroke (2:25.31) at the meet, with the 50 and 100 both coming in new Meet Records. Duane Da Rocha won the 50 back (29.69), 100 back (1:01.49) individually, both also in Meet Records.

From the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona Lidon Munoz won the women’s 100 free in 55.25, just beating out UCAM’s Melanie Costa Schmid (55.43), and later added a comfortable win in the 50 free in a new Meet Record of 25.24. National Teamer Africa Zamorano also represented the Barcelona-based university, but didn’t win any events.

Belmonte returns with a group of international swimmers to altitude training at the Sierra Nevada camp with Spanish head coach Fred Vergnoux. A full list of senior swimmers attending that camp:

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Dang she swims a lot… she’s also been very consistent over the years. Hope she throws up a really good one soon!

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1 year ago

Becky D

Can someone explain to an American the nature of “university championships?” What type of affiliation do the athletes have to the academic institution?

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1 year ago

David

The type of affiliation is that competitors are students from an University, I don’t want to sound rude or something, but is it any different in the USA? It only makes sense that anywhere in the world students from those universities compete in an University Championship.

David – it’s quite different in the US. In the US, it’s not good enough to be a student. To compete in the NCAA, there is an incredible number of other requirements, not the least of which is the approval and permission of a non-academic individual (aka a ‘coach’) to represent the university, you can’t accept money for competing, even if that competition isn’t for your school, along with an unbelievable number of other restrictions (including oversight of when/how/where you make any money whatsoever, age, how long ago you graduated high school, how many years you’ve been attending that university, what your grades are like, how many football players your school has, how many volleyball players your school has –… Read more »

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11 months ago

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder of SwimSwam.com.
He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming.
Aside from his life on the InterWet, …